Mr. Ger Deering:

We are very conscious of all of this. We are conscious that mediation is a confidential process but we are also conscious that we are a public body and that transparency is important. We conducted research on this and published a document on our website which talks about balancing transparency and confidentiality. One of the ways we do that is through the publication of case studies. We publish examples and case studies in order that people can see what is happening. As the Deputy rightly pointed out, we are not required to do so under the legislation but we think it is very helpful to do so. We also publish statistics on things like how many people got a settlement and how many people's cases were closed through clarification. There is another issue that worries or concerns people, which relates to the fact that the process is confidential. We have a code of ethics that is followed by our mediators and staff but if they have a concern that an issue is particularly egregious, is systemic or is one that should not be covered up by mediation, they can decide that the complaint should not be mediated and it will go to the ombudsman for a decision. While we are all about resolving disputes and we want to leave the decision, as much as possible, to the complainant but we also do what we call reality checking because we have a responsibility to the people with whom we are dealing.